ROOI LIFTS THE CURTAINS ON MARINE AND IMBIZO WEEK WITH

THE CREATION OF 48 PERMANENT JOBS THROUGH COASTAL

PROJECTS.

The Northern Cape’s MEC for Agriculture, Land Reform, Environment and Conservation, MEC Dawid Rooi will launch two coastal projects worth R2, 7 million for the youth of Hondeklipbaai and Port Nolloth next week. The national Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (D.E.A.T) funded projects, are made of kelp, mussels and limpet harvesting. Forty-eight jobs with a maximum and minimum monthly incomes of R3000.00 and R1200.00 are being created for poverty alleviation purposes.

The Kelp harvesting project is aimed at boosting coastal livelihoods by optimally utilising the seaweed resource along the coast. The implementing agent, Fishing and Mariculture Development Company (FAMDA) has access to three of the four kelp concessions on the Namaqualand Coast. The acquisition was made amid the transformation process initiated by D.E.A.T’s Marine and Coastal Management unit.

The mussels and limpet harvesting project is an inter-tidal coastal project aimed at determining the stock levels and to ascertain what percentage can be sustainably harvested. Should the project be successful, mussel and limpet harvesting could be commercialised through a rights allocation. Economic opportunities for SMME’s would enable communities to reshape their lot through the sustainable utilisation of the marine resources of the province’s coast. The projects are part of government’s plans of using the marine resources as a cornerstone of economic activity and social upliftment. More projects would come about once mining houses along the coast have endorsed government’s noble intentions.

END.

Enquiries: Thabo Mothibi @ 083 255 8840